The Results of Obama’s Executive Action Announcement

The Results of Obama’s Executive Action Announcement

Last night, President Obama announced his plan to enforce executive action to grant 5 million+ illegal immigrants’ protection from deportation. The President says that law enforcement, both local and federal, should shift their focus and resources on criminals, terrorist, and national security threats.

Of the current 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States, the President’s executive action will allow 4-5 million of them refuge from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The policy proposed by Obama will create a program of deportation deferrals for the undocumented parents of American born children or residents that have been in the US for over 5 years. The policy would include safety from deportation and authorization to work for us to three years.

Many politicians have accused President Obama of abusing his power and have pledged to stop the executive action he has proposed to make. Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn says, “I believe his unilateral action, which is unconstitutional and illegal, will deeply harm our prospects for immigration reform”. With the Republicans gaining control of Congress in January, may believe that the President made jump for immigration to keep in good standing with Latinos.

Despite the President’s efforts to allow Congress to act, his emphasis on his ‘limitations of power’ came to an end after the Republican-controlled House continued to deny every immigration proposal. The growth of unauthorized immigrants has American’s divided on how they feel about the issue. With 32% approving the executive action, and 42% disapproving, the country has official been split on what we should do.